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| crash in a sand dust! |
Toyohama Sea Bream Festibal
( Tai Matsuri )
Saturday and Sunday of mid or end of July
(depend on a condition of the tide)
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| crash in a sand dust! |
(Toyohama, Minami-Chita-cho, Chita-gun, Aichi Pref. )
Tai Matsuri (Bream Festival) is an epic festival which offers a spectacle.
It is said that a papier-mâché mouse made by Mori Sahei, who
was a shipwright,
triggered the original form of this festival.
He offered a papier-mâché mouse for the festival of Nakasu
Shrine in 1887/Meji 20
to enthuse the Shinto event.
After that, a mouse had been changed to fish to pray for an abundant catch
of fish and maritime safety .
In the early Taisho period, it settled down to a bream.
In the early Showa period, they started to make breams with music bands
playing o-hayashi/festival music
inside of the papier-mâché.
Toyohama is devided into five areas (Tobu-ku, Torii-ku, Hangetsu-ku, Nakamura-ku
and Nakasu-ku),
and each of them make one bream.
The frame of huge breams are made of bamboo and lumber,
and they are wrapped with breached cotton.
The largest bream is approximatery 18 meter long and 6 meter high.
If you would like to see how to make them, please come to Toyohama-gyoko
(Toyohama Fishing Port)
on Sat. or Sun of June.
In early July, the breams are almost compreated.
The festival days will be decided by the condition of the tide,
because one of the breams has to be plunged into the sea at the end of
the festival.
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| young guys' performance | drink sake and get a sense of solidarity |
girls' gala occasion medium dancing |
boys' gala occasion drumming |
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| huge breams get together | with a small bream for children | Do they check a bad tooth ? | a beam might be tickled |
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| On your mark ! Get set ! | Go !!! charge at the gate of okariya This is called "Iwaikomi" |
Gosh.....injured | Are you ready ? |
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| standby | sortie ! | take care.... | crush ! |
| schedule | |
| Sat & Sun | all the breams parade the street of each area in the morning 10:00a.m. - |
| Saturday | Isamikomi (dush to the okariya's gate) by breams of Tobu-ku, Torii-ku, Nakamura-ku and Hangetsu-ku area place: East of the "Toyohama"trafic signal on the Root 247. highlight: around 12:30-13:00-, breams get together at the Toyohama port and try isamikomi 7:30p.m. - fireworks display |
| Sunday | Isamikomi (dush into the okariya's gate) by breams of Tobu-ku, Torii-ku, Nakamura-ku and Hangetsu-ku area place: East of the "Toyohama"trafic signal on the Root 247. highlight: around 12:00-, breams get together at the Toyohama port and try isamikomi (dush into the okariya's gate) ******* Swimming of Nakasu-ku's sea bream by bream of Nakasu-ku area place: near Nakasu bus stop highlight: around 3:00p.m. a bream of Nakasu-ku will plunge into the sea. |
| Nakasu-ku | |||
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| go down the slope | Let's swim ! | sway the bream to the right | sway the bream to the left |
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| swaying again and again | and again | want to swim more ? | return to the land |
